From selfie to photographic art - Module 3

C1 Advanced · Gapped Text · Advanced Expert Student's Resource Book, Pearson Education

You are going to read a magazine article. Six paragraphs have been removed from the article. Choose from the paragraphs A-G the one which fits each gap (1–6). There is one extra paragraph which you do not need to use.

From selfie to photographic art

I meet the British photographer on a mission to revise the history of photography.

Having said that, he is the first to admit that his collection is not comprehensive. 'I get sent a lot of books. I get sent a lot of bad books,' he says. 'If I don't want a book, I'll give it away. But occasionally, something really fantastic turns up.'

He doesn't deny this but reminds me that he's looking for things before anyone else is looking for them. 'That's what's happened in China. When people see what we've come across in China, they are absolutely bog-eyed.'

He's been adding to it ever since his first acquisitions as a student in Manchester but only became really hooked once he'd started earning. 'You probably have to be an obsessive person to collect, if you're going to do it seriously and thoroughly, which I attempt to do.'

Since then, the selective listings have encouraged an insider market to emerge amongst collectors, publishers and photographers. Inclusion brings kudos to both the publisher and to a photographer's reputation, and almost guarantees an eventual rise in the resale value.

To find an example of this groundbreaking work, we need look no further than the Japanese photobook. Until the 1980s, this was a specialist area, reserved for a few maverick enthusiasts, historians and collectors.

Using something a little more sophisticated, I'm trying to capture my own image of the man at his home in Bristol, surrounded by his book collection. Surprisingly, he's not an easy subject; partly because he looks so sceptical, partly because he keeps opening books up on the floor to show me things and so I have to keep asking him to stand up.

We eventually arrive in a small room stacked with boxes and lined with shelves of books. 'China and Latin America are down here,' he says, 'Well, some of China... and Latin America overspill.' It's too tight for two, so we go next door, where a cabinet holds some of his novelty watch collection – another of his passions.

Martin Parr is one of the best-known photographers in the UK. His reputation derives from his candid pictures of others, but he is also a dedicated exponent of the selfie – he may even have invented the term. His series of self-portraits, taken in photo booths all around the world, began long before the mobile phone camera was invented.

We are here to talk about his books but Parr collects pretty much everything, from Chinese tea caddies to miniature televisions, commemorative plates to cigarette cases decorated with Russian space-dogs: 'Yes, Laika, Strelka and Belka, they're the three most famous.' That's before you get to his photographic prints, some of which I pause to admire on the walls of the stairwell as he leads the way to the basement.

Parr is in his early 60s and, alongside his reputation as a photographer, his most enduring legacy is likely to be the 12,000 photography books he has collected over the past 35 years. What began as a hobby has developed into a mission to change the way the history of photography is defined and understood. As a collector, he has discovered, documented and promoted previously unknown areas of photographic bookmaking.

Parr is quick to acknowledge their contribution but once he discovered what was there, it was his own enthusiasm that brought those books to the fore. 'The main thing I've learnt,' he says, 'is how lazy and narrow-minded our histories of photography have been and how, with some investment and some application, there is so much to discover.' When I ask if he has estimated the value of the collection, he says, 'I haven't. But I know it would be substantial.'

His critics are quick to point out, however, that in being one of its generators, he has also been one of the chief beneficiaries of the growing interest in photography books and the steep rise in prices. Isn't he now competing in a bull market he has helped to create?

In 2004, Parr published the first volume of The Photobook: A History, an edited selection of his collection, illustrated with layouts from each volume, written by his friend and collaborator, the photo-historian Gerry Badger. Initially pored over solely by photography fans, dealers and collectors, the work quickly became indispensable for auction houses, which often had little else to quote by way of provenance for a photographer's work.

So what would he like to see happen to this valuable collection? 'Eventually, I want it to go into a public collection, to be looked after and be used as a research tool,' he replies. 'That's the whole point, really. There is no particularly good photographic book collection in the public domain in the UK. The Tate Museum in London is my preferred venue. I'm in discussion with them but nothing has been determined.'

Martin Parr is one of the best-known photographers in the UK. His reputation derives from his candid pictures of others, but he is also a dedicated exponent of the selfie – he may even have invented the term. His series of self-portraits, taken in photo booths all around the world, began long before the mobile phone camera was invented. ___ We are here to talk about his books but Parr collects pretty much everything, from Chinese tea caddies to miniature televisions, commemorative plates to cigarette cases decorated with Russian space-dogs: 'Yes, Laika, Strelka and Belka, they're the three most famous.' That's before you get to his photographic prints, some of which I pause to admire on the walls of the stairwell as he leads the way to the basement. ___ Parr is in his early 60s and, alongside his reputation as a photographer, his most enduring legacy is likely to be the 12,000 photography books he has collected over the past 35 years. What began as a hobby has developed into a mission to change the way the history of photography is defined and understood. As a collector, he has discovered, documented and promoted previously unknown areas of photographic bookmaking. ___ Parr is quick to acknowledge their contribution but once he discovered what was there, it was his own enthusiasm that brought those books to the fore. 'The main thing I've learnt,' he says, 'is how lazy and narrow-minded our histories of photography have been and how, with some investment and some application, there is so much to discover.' When I ask if he has estimated the value of the collection, he says, 'I haven't. But I know it would be substantial.' ___ His critics are quick to point out, however, that in being one of its generators, he has also been one of the chief beneficiaries of the growing interest in photography books and the steep rise in prices. Isn't he now competing in a bull market he has helped to create? ___ In 2004, Parr published the first volume of The Photobook: A History, an edited selection of his collection, illustrated with layouts from each volume, written by his friend and collaborator, the photo-historian Gerry Badger. Initially pored over solely by photography fans, dealers and collectors, the work quickly became indispensable for auction houses, which often had little else to quote by way of provenance for a photographer's work. ___ So what would he like to see happen to this valuable collection? 'Eventually, I want it to go into a public collection, to be looked after and be used as a research tool,' he replies. 'That's the whole point, really. There is no particularly good photographic book collection in the public domain in the UK. The Tate Museum in London is my preferred venue. I'm in discussion with them but nothing has been determined.'

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